, 1887-05-12

lish Literature. It's Blemishes and De-
fects," by Henry III. Breen, +. s. A., a
cOuntryman Of Mr.. Arnold In it /
find examples of bad grammar and
solvenly English from the pens of
Sidney Smith, Sheridan, Hall, Whate.
ly, Carlyle, both Disraeil, Alison,
Junius, Blair. Macauley. Shakespeare,
Milton, Southey, Bulwer, Cokbott, DR..
Samuel Johnson, Trench, Lamb, Ian.
dor, Smollett, Walpole, Walker (of the
dictionary, Christopher North, Kirke
White, Mrs. Sigouney, Benjamin
Franklin, Walter Scott and Mr.. Lind.
ley Murray, who made the grammar
In Mr.. Arnold's paper on General
Grants book We find a couple OF gram.
matical crimes and more than several
examples OF very crude and solvenly
English, enough Of them to entitle
him to first place in that illustrious
list OF delinquents just named. The
following passage, oil by itself, ought
to elect him:
MEADE suggested to Grant that he
might wish to have immediately under
him Sherman, who had been serving
with Grant in the west. He begged
him not to hesitate il he thought it
for the good OF the service. Grant as
sured him that he had no thought of
moving him, and in his memoirs,
alter relating what had passed, he
adds" etc.
To read that passage a couple of
times would make man dizzy, and 10
read it four times would make him
drunk. [Great laughter.] General
Grants grammar is as good rs any
body's, but If this were not 80 Mr..
Brccn would brush that inconsequen.
tial fact aside and hunt his great
book for higher game. Mr.. Breen
makes this discriminating remark:
"To suppose that because man is
poet or historian he must be correct
in his grammar is to suppose that an
architect must be Joiner or a physi.
| clan compounder of medicine"
Mr.. Breen's point is well taken. If
you should climb the mighty Matter
horn to look out over the Kingdoms of
the earth, it might be pleasant Incl
dent to find strawberries up there;
but, great Scott, you don't climb the
Matterhorn for Strawberries. Con
tinued applause.l / don't think Mr..
well that Briton or American was
never yet born who could safely
assault another mans English. He
knew, as well as he knew anything,
that the man never lived whose
English was flawless. Can you believe
that Mr.. Arnold was immodest enough
to imagine himself an exception to
this cast iron rule--the sole exception
discovered within the three or four
centuries during which the English
language proper has been in existence?
No, Mr.. Arnold did not imagine that.
He merely forgot that for q moment
he was moving into glass house, and
he had fairly got in before General Fry
was shivering the panes over his head.
Laughter.]
People may hunt out what micros-
copic notes they may please, but, after
all, the fact remains and cannot be dis
lodged that General Grants book is q
great, (and in its peculiar Department.
unique and unapproachable literary
masterpiece. In their line there is no
higher literature than those modest
simple "memoirs." Their style is at
least fiawless, and no man can improve
upon it and great books are measured
by their style and matter, not by the
trimmings and shade OF their grammar.
There is that about the sun which
makes us forget his spots, and when
we think of General Grant our
pulses quicken and his grammar van
ishes. We only remember that this is
the simple soldier who, all untaught of
the silken phrase-maker, linked words
together with an art surprising the art
of the schools, and put into them II
something which will still bring to
American ears, as long as America
shall last, the roll of his vanished
hosts. Tumultous applause.
What do we care for grammar when
we think OF a man who put together
that thunderous phrase. "Uncondi-
tional and immediate surrender, Wand
those others: 81 propose to move inn
mediately upon your works" "I pro-
pose to fight it out on this line il it
takes all summer" (Applause.) Mr..
Arnold would doubtless claim that
that last sentence is not strictly gram
matical and yet, nevertheless, it did
certainly wake up this nation as Il
hundred millions OF tons Of All-forth-
proof, hard-boiled, hide bound gram
mar from another mouth could not
have done, and finally we have that
gentle phrase, that which shows you
another true side of the man; shows
that in his soldier heart there was
room for other than CORY war notices,
and in his tongue the gift to fifty praise
them: "Let us have peace" pro